A glimpse of opportunity: Start by marrying a mermaid bride.

On the iron-clad ship, eighteen corpses were neatly arranged on the deck.

The bodies were all dressed in neat hospital gowns, each with a number written on it.

Richard frowned as he looked at the frogmen recovering the bodies and asked, "Why are there only eighteen? Where are the two missing?"

The frogman said with a bitter face, "Mr. Richard, we've been searching all night and only found these eighteen bodies. The water is cleaner than my kitchen."

"But two are missing!"

Richard said angrily.

The frogman looked distressed and said, "Mr. Richard, we've searched the entire underwater area, but we haven't found the two bodies you mentioned. They may have been washed downstream. Actually, retrieving bodies isn't our patrol team's job. If you want to retrieve bodies, you can go find that group of yellow-skinned monkeys' body retrieval team."

"A body retrieval team?"

"That's the water rescue team you just chased away."

The frogman spoke up, and upon hearing this, Anthony stepped forward and said, "Mr. Richard, it's just two bodies that are missing. Why are you so agitated, Mr. Richard?"

Upon hearing this, Richard said, "Captain Anthony, those two corpses were my Baron's most important experimental subjects. Losing them would be a huge blow to my Baron's experiments. Moreover, among those two corpses was a medical practitioner from the Great Jing Kingdom: Wen Mofang!"

"He's too important to our Baron's experiments. Find him, you must find him!"

Hearing this, Anthony said, "Richard, I understand how you feel, but there are many undercurrents in the Haihe River. It's normal that the body was washed away and we couldn't find it. We really did our best."

Richard said, "No, Anthony, you must help me find him. He knows many secrets of our lab. We must not let him pass on the information alive, otherwise it will have a huge impact on our colonization of Great Jing!"

Anthony: "Didn't you say they were dead?"

Richard said, "Logically, he should be dead, but... but he's a Sequencer. You know Sequencers have many amazing abilities. We absolutely, absolutely cannot let him live!"

"I want to see him alive or dead!"

Anthony looked at Richard and said, "Richard, this is all I can do to help you. The fleet is the property of the Empire, not the private property of your Andrei family. If I help you search on this Haihe River any further, the Admiralty will not let me off the hook."

"Actually, I really suggest you try contacting those yellow-skinned monkeys' corpse retrieval team, or go directly to their government. I've heard that those yellow-skinned monkeys are very greedy, and they'll do anything as long as you're willing to pay them."

After listening to Anthony's words, Richard said, "Hmm, maybe you're right. If all else fails, we should ask those yellow-skinned monkeys for help."

……

On the other side, Zhou Xun rowed his small boat quickly out of the reeds. On the boat, Li Jitong had already put on his clothes, took out the tin wine flask at his waist, took a sip, and immediately felt much warmer.

At this moment, Li Jitong handed the wine pot to Zheng Xuan and said, "Take a sip to warm yourself up. The water is cold in late autumn, and you won't be able to stand it if you don't drink a sip after going into the water."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Xuan reached out and took the wine pot, taking a large gulp. It was strong liquor, but it felt much better after drinking it.

At this moment, Li Jitong picked up his pipe again, lit a pot of hot pot, and began to enjoy it. Looking at the child's corpse on the boat, he said, "These corpses are strange!"

Zhou Xun, rowing his famous boat, asked, "What's strange about that?"

Li Jitong said, "I've observed them, and there should be more than one corpse. But regardless of age or gender, they're all wearing the same style of clothing, which makes them look like..."

"Prison uniform".

Zheng Xuan offered a suggestion, and Li Jitong's eyes immediately lit up as he exclaimed, "Yes, that's right, it's prison uniform!"

"In other words, these people were imprisoned in one place and eventually died."

"And it's foreigners doing the salvage, and they're not letting anyone get close, which is suspicious."

Li Jitong said, taking a puff of his pipe, "Why are these foreign devils causing so much trouble for so many people?"

Li Jitong was puzzled.

Meanwhile, Zheng Xuan used the Soul Control technique to summon Little Soul. Little Soul couldn't leave the water, so it stayed in the water with the boat.

Zheng Xuan then communicated with the little drowning soul using his inner voice.

After communicating with him, Zheng Xuan learned some of the details.

This little drowned soul is called Erdan. He is from Xiahe Village in Tanghe Town, which is very close to Zheng Xuan's Nanhe Village. Before the accident, he was swimming in a small ditch. When he swam to the deep water, he was suddenly caught by a frogman hiding in the deep water.

The children who were bathing with him at the time were terrified when they saw this, saying that he had been captured by a water monkey.

Instead of being captured by the water monkeys, he was sent to the Catholic Church in the French Concession, which was run by foreigners.

The church had a large, well-maintained basement. The first thing they did after he was taken there was to take a shower and then change into clean clothes.

Then the three of them were locked in a room with two other people, one of whom was a middle-aged doctor surnamed Wen, whom Erdan called Uncle Wen.

They were kept underground. At first, life was good. Every day, someone would give them a glass of milk, and their food consisted of meat. They would also be given an apple.

But things gradually went wrong. Their roommate was first taken away and injected with an unknown drug. After that, his whole body began to fester, and scales slowly grew on his festering skin.

A few days later, the young man died.

When Uncle Wen saw this, he went completely mad, cursing the foreign devils as beasts. Later, no one knows what he said to the foreign devils, but he was released from prison.

After that, Erdan didn't see Uncle Wen until three days ago, when Erdan was taken out of the prison. When the group of foreigners injected him with some unknown drug, he saw Uncle Wen. However, at that time, Uncle Wen was wearing the same white coat as the foreigners, and also a mask.

After that, he fell ill. His body began to fester and heal, and scales grew on it. Just last night, Uncle Wen suddenly found him, gave him a pill, and told him to take it.

He fainted after eating it, and when he woke up, he found himself in the river outside. Uncle Wen was injured, but he was carrying him in the river.

Later, they encountered an underwater current, and Uncle Wen was separated from him. He sank to the bottom of the water and, with his last bit of consciousness, grabbed onto some water plants, but eventually drowned.

After that, Zheng Xuan discovered him and subdued him.

After listening to Erdan's account, Zheng Xuan frowned. He then went to the body, pulled open the shirt, and saw that the abdomen was covered with a dense layer of fish scales.

Both Zhou Xun and Li Jitong frowned upon seeing this scene.

Fish scales?